Friday, April 7

Make a Dementia-Friendly House

HOME IMPROVEMENT VIDEO:

It is important that people living with dementia have the best quality of life possible in their homes. See simple changes that create a more dementia-friendly environment, enhancing emotional well-being and independence.

Inexpensive and simple changes to a house can make it so much more dementia-friendly. See this video for good ideas from the Social Care Institute for Excellence. Below the video are Amazon links to helpful items described in this film clip.

Interesting video with some useful and practical tips. Pleased the garden got a mention although the potential for developing an external therapeutic space could have been explored in some more detail. We have created a free online design guide for people living with dementia which can be applied both internally and externally, we hope it is useful - http://www.dementiagardens.com/design-guide/4583663973

I see the Seniors Phone you have advertised here - maybe someone in your country should design a phone like the one on the this link: http://www.kisaphone.com.au/dementia.aspx - this is a phone I bought for my husband who has Alzheimer's and he finds it really easy to use. It is only available in Australia, but surely a phone company could design a similar thing in your country?

Let me briefly tell you that there are multiple forms of dementia - alzheimer’s disease being the most common one that accounts for 40 to 75% of dementia cases and is the sixth leading cause of death in United States. Additionally, dementia and its types have common signs with some variations. Let’s start with the most common signs of dementia most commonly seen in patients at the early stages of the disease. They start experiencing subtle memory loss, mood instability such as immediate occurrences of maniac (laugh) and depression (sadness) episodes, and have trouble with listening and explaining things to other people, communicational obstructions to be exact. They also segregate their selves from social gatherings and unions, face difficulty in performing daily chores and also experience muscle impairment. Additionally, some people fail to converse with other people because they fail to keep up the pace and comparatively take longer to process the coming words and repeat the same question over and over again. Most of the cases showed that, dementia patients start segregating their selves and start living alone because they could not keep up with the lives of normal people. They just are not up for the adaptation to change. In one of the form of dementia, which is Lewy Body dementia, probable signs appear to be sleeplessness. Patients experience insomnia which leads to mood swings. It has been seen that they fail to keep tracks of roads and lose their tracking skills as well. In case of Alzheimer’s, a patient the most common signs are memory loss and forgetfulness. In some cases, it has been observed that people with Alzheimer’s segregate their selves from others. Additionally, they experience complete memory loss and trouble understanding visual images and spatial relationships, lack the judgement skill and a complete withdrawal from work or social activities. One most commonly observed is the forgetfulness and inability to retrace steps. There is another type of dementia called Parkinson’s characterized as uncontrollable movement of body parts such a shaking limbs and fingers. It has been observed that patients experience writing and speech changes, their ability to respond fails badly and they lose posture and balance. One of the common sign is bradykinesia characterized as slow body movement. One thing to keep in mind before labelling someone as a dementia patient is that forgetfulness and memory loss do no really mean a person has dementia because memory loss and forgetfulness are a normal parts of aging. But if any severity has been observed in these signs, a patient definitely requires a professional advice and consultation. There is no cookie approach to cure dementia but if you observe such changings or signs in your loved ones do not take it for granted before it gets too late. Reference: What IS Dementia?

Food & Health

AlzBooks.com

"I loved and needed to hear these stories. I am living these stories everyday. I loved the humor, the hope and the compassion of each of these authors!"

Caring for a loved one with Alzheimer’s or another form of dementia? You are not alone. With 101 encouraging and inspiring stories by others like you, this book is a source of support and encouragement throughout the caregiving journey. This collection, especially for caregivers, is a joint project with the Alzheimer’s Association.